AVR-Chat

It appears this group has all but died over the last few months. Has all 
the discussion moved to AVRFreaks or other groups or does this represent 
a move away from AVR's to other (ARM?) processor families? Would the 
last person out turn the lights off ... or is it me?

Mark

At 08:03 PM 1/05/2014, you wrote:
>It appears this group has all but died over the last few months.

I'm still here...lurking...

>Has all the discussion moved to AVRFreaks

Not really, as observed it has slowed down there too.

>does this represent a move away from AVR's to other (ARM?)

For me Studio 6.x will be the cause I move away from AVRs if
I need something more powerful/different than what's supported
by the stable AS4.18.

Used an Xmega for a project and not really impressed AND I had
to use the bloated and sluggish AS6 AND I had to relearn pretty
much everything I knew regarding Atmel chips and tools.

My theory has been that if I need to relearn everything from scratch
I better start with another brand, nothing to gain by staying loyal.

I did it with Motorola and it was the best thing I did after 20+ years
of their chips.

Messing around with the NXP M0 chips but I don't really need anything
more powerful than a 4MHZ-8MHz chip for most of my projects.

...AND Modbus seems to be popular as a network protocols for industrial
controls....




Regards

John Samperi

********************************************************
Ampertronics Pty. Ltd.
11 Brokenwood Place Baulkham Hills, NSW 2153 AUSTRALIA
Tel. (02) 9674-6495
Website  http://www.ampertronics.com.au
*Electronic Design * Custom Products * Contract Assembly
********************************************************

On 02/05/14 23:53, Mark Nowell wrote:
>
> Dave et al
>
> Background is that we have 20-year-old proprietary 485 protocol running at 9600,
> connecting up to 30 controllers over a mile or more, and we're looking to
> upgrade! A broad range of applications but primarily HVAC and building
> automation. Ideally I'd like:
>
> a) more bandwidth;
> b) isolation;
> c) greater address range;
> d) possibility of in situ firmware updates;
> e) 'seamless' connectivity with/through wireless nodes, repeaters etc.
> f) low hardware cost.
>
> CAN/CANopen is currently the front-runner, followed by Modbus, possibly BACnet?
> However I've read a few articles recently advocating "IP to the end-point" using
> small IP stacks that will fit in a reasonably low-level micro. IP sounds good.
> Ethernet? Application layer? I'm probably trying to convince myself this isn't
> the obvious choice it might otherwise sound.
>
> I'm interested in the various directions people have taken from the AVR. I've
> been looking at the Atmel Cortex-M3 range but I'm another one who has been
> clinging to AVR Studio 4.x. I've no experience of ST/NXP/Freescale/etc
> development tools so it's good to hear views on these.

If you run the SCADA DNP3 network protocol, you can keep all that old RS485 
stuff in a modern system. Every node in the network will have a simple address 
up to 64k nodes iirc. SCADA says nothing about what actual hardware comms layer 
is used. You can even have a heterogenous network by using suitable hubs to 
connect the different network types.

At 02:27 AM 3/05/2014, you wrote:
>So nobody can comment on how bad AS6 is compared to any free IDEs 
>available from/for other manufacturers?

Well I can comment on the PE Micro's Motorola development
system for the 68HC11, the DOS version (20+ years ago) was
usable, I could do everything I needed to do including emulation
and ran on a 33-66MHz AT machine.

Then when my computer became faster (233Mhz) the DOS version no
longer worked (remember the 200MHz bug?? ), PE micro were kind enough
to give my a free Windows version. I could do everything I needed
to do including emulation and ran on a 233MHz+ machine.

I started to get annoyed with Motorola, started looking around and
used MPLAB (4 or 5??) with PICs for about a year. I could do everything
I needed to do including emulation and ran on a 800MHz?? machine.

Got fed up with PICs and started to use AVR with Studio 3, I could do
everything I needed to do including emulation and ran on a 1GHz?? machine.
AS4.0 came out, it was a disaster until maybe V4.08, then it started to be
useable. I could do everything I needed to do including emulation and ran
on a 1GHz and 1.8GHz?? machine. Still using the very stable AS4.18 on a
2.8GHz machine Win XP with 3GB of RAM, starts up in a few seconds. I can do
everything I need to do including emulation, but not the very new chips.
Download at about 100MB.

AS6 came out, NO WAY I can run it on this machine, download at about 800MB.
Got a new modest laptop just for a AS6, 2,7GHz, WIN7 64 bits, 6 MB RAM, no
solid state HDD.

AS4.18 start up in less than 5 seconds, AS6.1 45 to 90 seconds.
When it eventually starts I can SORT OF do everything I need to do including
emulation, (used for just just one project, everything else AS4.18) unless
the latest upgrades breaks my tools, need to revert to an older firmware, wait
until somebody finds a work-around, it fills up my disk with junk I don't need
or want like a useless Software Framework (for the AVRs I use), a 32bit and
ARM tool-chains and a lot of other stuff which slows me down as it 
tries to take
over my job etc. which may slow down operation.

Got the drift so far? In 20+ years things have grown monstrously huge but not
really doing any more than what I did 20 years ago except hog system resources.

Messed around with LPCXpresso (V5.2 currently), download at about 
200MB. It runs
on this computer, (2.8GHz machine Win XP as above). I can do 
everything I needed
to do including emulation once I got my head around the new IDE and 
the way ARM does
things at least to a minimal level.

I have also used demo versions of ImageCraft and Codevision C 
compilers, lately I
have been messing around with BASCOM. I can do everything I needed .........

Ok that's enough :-)



Regards

John Samperi

********************************************************
Ampertronics Pty. Ltd.
11 Brokenwood Place Baulkham Hills, NSW 2153 AUSTRALIA
Tel. (02) 9674-6495
Website  http://www.ampertronics.com.au
*Electronic Design * Custom Products * Contract Assembly
********************************************************